**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 94.12.18 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> THE NEWS ABOUT THE NEWS Thanks to the Junior NewsDroid who did an excellent job on the news last week while the entire Fed Team absconded for a weekend of sin in the fleshpots of Sirius IV. Next week, Sunday is Christmas Day, so although there will be a news bulletin it may be a little sketchy - depending on how drunken and bloated Hazed gets! GEnie players will be delighted to know that the GEnie holiday runs from Thursday December 22 at 6.00pm right through to Tuesday January 3 at 8.00am, so you can play Fed all day without having to worry about any primetime surcharges. **>> NEW, EXCITING, DIFFERENT... Over the past week, Bella has made a few changes to the game and added some new features. Because of the rush of mid-level players, all struggling to be first to get those vital stat items, the object recycling time has been sped up a little. A cryptic warning to wannabe-GMs: this means you'll have to be slightly quicker getting your act together after Snark's defences are taken down. Because of the enormous amount of new business, Diesel has taken on some new sexdroids, and she is also somewhat less strict about what she accepts to show you are worthy of her attentions. We wonder what exactly is this girl's best friend? The planet display now lists any embassies based on the world, so you can see who has set up shop where, and try to guess whether they intend the embassy to be used to give foreign aid... or as a basis for spies and saboteurs. Ooooo errrrrr, paranoia is starting to set in! As yet, the embassies don't do anything, but they certainly seem to be making some people worried. Bounty-hunters will no longer receive their just rewards if the planet treasury is in the red. If you kill a mobile and don't get the money you deserve, complain to the owner of the planet. Towards the end of the week, Bella will be making a few more changes. Planet-owners, be warned: your workthings will no longer bring their own sandwiches, but will expect you to provide their meals. In other words, they will start consuming some of your planet's resources. The amount they gobble up will depend on the level of your planet. We'll provide details when this new feature actually goes in. Investing in infrastructure will start taking raw materials from your planet. If the necessary resources are not available, then the infrastructure won't be built. Again, we'll provide details at the time. The Emperor code will start going in soon... there will be one Emperor- level command in before Christmas, as a special present to Ming. We will leave it to His Imperial Majesty to demonstrate to you what the command is! **>> CHRISTMAS IS COMING... There are lots of fun things happening in Fed DataSpace this Christmas! You can visit our special Christmas planet - Carol, in the Christmas system, where you can see your favorite (or not so favorite) Christmas Carols, in many different ways. Tread the path where Grandma got run over; visit a house where visions of sugarplums draw you into dreams (or nightmares); and join a massive Christmas party, complete with yule logs and holly-decked halls. The planet Carol has several mini-puzzles, each with their own reward - some easy, designed for new players, and some tricky that will take time to solve. Carol will be in the game from Friday December 23 to Friday December 30. We'll have a special planet for New Year, too - Tempus, in the Fugit system, a planet where time begins, ends, and takes the weekend off. Can you find the missing Baby 1995 and claim the reward? All times exist here, the best and the worst that history has to offer, so tread carefully, but don't dawdle: time is wasting! Tempus will be in the game from Friday December 30 to Saturday January 7. Over the Christmas period, Santa Claus will be visiting Fed with his huge bulging sack of presents for all the good little boys and girls. He knows if you've been naughty or nice - but there's still time to behave yourself to ensure you get a present from the fat jolly old gentleman! He'll be there over the Christmas weekend, Friday December 23 to Monday December 26. We'll be throwing a New Year's Eve party to see in the New Year (for all timezones!), and a party on Twelfth Night (Friday January 6) as we all take down our decorations and get back to normal. There'll be fun and games at both these parties, with opportunities for you to win prizes - including the Grand Twelfth Night Costume Ball, where you should dress as a character from the song Twelve Days of Christmas (the clean version, please!). **>> SIGH! Remember those mystery crashes? We never did get to the bottom of them, but they seemed to go away for a few weeks. Until last night... when it happened again. So please, keep sending us information. If you are in Fed and something strange happens, tell us about it! Be over-zealous in reporting. Don't be afraid that your information is not important - you might have the vital piece we need, even if you don't know it. Remember, we have a beautiful Fed t-shirt on offer to the person whose information leads us to the cause of the problems. **>> ARE YOU A CRITTER? A teleporting critter that is. If so, the following list will come in real handy. Even if you aren't, the list is still going to be useful. For each system/planet, the location number for the LP, Exchange and a Bar are listed. In addition, the direction to the Exchange from the LP is listed, and a * by the number on the LP or Exchange means that there is food and drink available there, as well. Planet System LP loc Ex loc ExDir Bar Loc Arena Starbase1 74 72 NE 77 Dunnottar Dunnottar 2 3 * N 5 Mirai Mirai 2 * 5 * S 3 Paradigm Paradigm 5 3 NE 6 Dawn Dawn 5 3 W 6 Nautilus Nautilus 2 6 N,E 7 Addis Oac 5 3 * E 4 Fortymile Fortymile 3 * 5 * E 4 Vertigo Vertigo 5 * 3 * E 6 Sutra Kama 5 * 3 E 4 Surf Surfside 5 3 S 10 Qushmarrah Tempest 5 * 3 D 4 Hyperion Terraincognito 5 3 E 1 Ulster Ulster 5 3 * S 57 Skan Shelter 5 3 * NW 6 Utopia Utopia 5 * 3 * S 6 Chaos Chaos 5 3 * E 10 Pagrah Pagrah 8 9 NE 18 Outpost Outpost 5 3 IN 102 Cove Cove 5 * 3 * N,NW 4 Roma Roma 5 * 3 * W 6 Corona Conception 5 3 E 12 Halcyon Halcyon 5 3 E 6 Brittany Brittany 5 3 S 6 Polaris Polaris 5 * 3 * S 6 Anomoly Sphinx 5 * 3 * NE 7 Vannitel Vannitel 5 3 S 6 Aise Aise 5 3 * E 1 Storm Storm 5 * 3 * E 1 Laconia Sparta 2 3 E 5 Tula Tula 5 * 3 * S 1 Citadel Citadel 28 29 E 31 Hermitage Hermitage 3 4 * E 9 Dichotomy Dichotomy 2 3 E 4 Tanarith Tanarith 2 * 3 * D 2 Mallavia Mallavia 5 3 * E 6 Salamander Idyll 2 3 NE 16 Naug Naug 2 * 3 * E 4 Satin Satin 6 7 * E 11 **>> LOST IN SPACE!!! Hilbert Space, as we all know (or obviously don't know) is very tricky. Spacemarks change, constellations rotate, and beacons get blown up, but newsdroids are perplexed with our very own Duke Budwarp getting trapped in Hilbert Space! After Budwarp returned to Sol Space, our Newsdroids were gracious enough to give him a slice of bread to mark his way out next time. **>> WHO CAN IT BE NOW? Cooleo, who is this being to draw such pronounced attention? Upon passing, our electronic nosey droids took up the scent to find out what the stink was all about. Tellurian, with his unmistakeable aroma, "helped" out the subject by offering up the command "Suicide". Sean, ever quick to jump on the opportunity of disgracing the Ne Galdur zealot, came to the rescue and escorted Cooleo to the insurance office. But did Sean stay around to get his Boy Scout claws into Cooleo? No! He stepped aside to let Nightstalker assist him. Well, Sean couldn't stand completely "Idyll" and suggested that very planet for Cooleo's new ship. Our snoopdroid had nothing better to do, so it stayed on Cooleo's tail. A few days later this reporter saw Budwarp and Barberousse fawning over Cooleo, as they tried to remember how to give out jobs so they could run him up to Adventurer. Then, they set him up on an earth-moon shuttle run. Looks like Fed is a very friendly place these days. A captain has already had personal attention from three Dukes and two Senators. **>> TAKING THINGS TOO LITERALLY? You know how in the very excellent instructions, we give commands in this form: and we explain that words in upper case should be typed literally, and words in lower case are giving you an idea of the sort of information the game expects? Seems someone didn't read the explanation carefully enough. A Captain (who shall remain nameless to spare his, her or its blushes) is flying around in a ship called "shipname"! **>> MEGALOMANIA "After the formation of my new company I have no plans to dominate the world," said Merchant Clem from his HQ under a volcano in the Carribbean. Just check out the name of his company, and see if you believe him! **>> PARANOIA There is no truth in the rumour that Party Hosts, demi-Goddess, or even Goddesses can use their spybeams to see what is going on in the Ritz on Surf. Party Host spybeams are the same as everyone else's; the Ritz's spyshield stops the beams dead. And that's the truth. **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES Aja's Sphinx and Raven's Dichotomy advanced to mining planets. Brawn's Outpost moved up to technical and Ciaran's Ulster is now a leisure world - lots of opportunities for Traders there if he starts his Duke builds! China's new planet, Satin, appeared this morning - but she told us not to look because it's only a mini. At last, Pink has finished building Idyll and the full version is now in - see our report below. There's been little movement within the duchies. Next week we will bring you a full round-up of who's in what. **>> AN IDYLLIC SALAMANDER Pink's planet, Idyll, in the Salamander system, is now a complete planet, much increased from its original 16 locations. It is well worth exploring! The landing pad is surrounded with the usual businesses with the exchange being a step to the northeast (teleporter location 3). There's a lovely bed and breakfast, and a genial host. However, he tells visitors that a festival, that should be going on, isn't, because the goddess won't let it. Most unfortunate! This is the first clue you get that everything is not as it should be on Idyll. Exploring, you encounter salamanders in many guises, and soon, you find the goddess herself, who tells you her story. You're given the option to help, and once equipped with the right objects, you're on your way. The puzzle on Idyll is an engaging one, and Pink has offered a reward for the first to solve it. Even without offer of a reward, Idyll is a very well-written planet, the descriptions are evocative, and it is very much worth visiting. Pink has put a lot of effort into creating a planet that tells a story, and we have no hesitation in awarding her that most rare and valuable of accolades, the Walrus of Merit. **>> SATIN AND... A new planet linked into the game this morning, and as seems to be the new standard, it's a mini-planet. When someone commented, "Satin and lace", China replied that it was just Satin now, and that lace would be coming later. We'll despatch a droid to review the planet just as soon as there's more to explore! **>> SPYNET REVIEW Here's a bumper, super-duper, double-issue, two-week's worth of promotion news. The new Captains were Warthog, Themanfromred, Sniper, Nadly, Oxymoron, Fastjack, Elwoodblues, Cooleo, Jaxom, Willow, Risor, Equinox, Tiamet, Cygnus, Sniper, Zoponity, Alpodz, Aubie, Dillweed, Xxxyl, Edison, Papertyger, Llong, Gary, Angel, Slim, Wildstar, Messenger, Scotty and Donna. Rusty, Ace, Kepoch, Sniper, Willow, Risor, Jaxom, Fastjack, Warthog, Darth, Sniper, Elwoodblues, Cygnus, Nadly, Bil, Riv, Angel, Equinox, Aubie, Llong and Woozlemeister were promoted to Adventurer or Adventureuse. The Traders Guild admitted Jeb, Bgg, Rusty, Breaker, Kepoch, Willow, Bob, Fastjack, Elwoodblues, Chani, Jaxom and Angel. Hans, Bgg, Ceinwen, Tutankhamen, Rusty, Willow, Jeff, Clem and Knightfall made it to Merchant. The awesome JP puzzle proved no match for the wits of China, Winter, Spudk, Bgg and Hans. Starman, Ingollde, China and Winter cracked the fiendish GM puzzle. Ingollde, China and Winter went to make Explorer. China became a Squire as her new planet was linked into the game. Aja and Raven were promoted to Thane, Brawn moved up to Technocrat, and Ciaran became a Baron, as their planets all promoted. Adventurer Sniper went d-d in Sol, for reasons our newsdroids were not able to ferret out. JP Lonehawk fell victim to the Godfather, who found out about his treacherous plan to destroy Snark. The unfortunate Journeyman was twice killed while trying to disable the planetary defence satellites. He return is not expected, but one of his heirs may be trying to form an organisation to continue the work in overthrowing the Godfather's hold on crime in Fed DataSpace. **>> CONTACTS The following information will appear at the end of every News Bulletin, so you don't have to read it if you already know it. The current Federation Party Hosts are: Mira, Redqueen, Caterpillar, Lyrynna and Varina. Their function is to answer questions, help new players get started, and make fun things happen. In the event of a problem or question, you can: * talk to Hazed or one of the Party Hosts in the game * a message to Hazed * send mail on your host system to the Federation team: on GEnie, mail FEDII.2 or use the option on the main Fed page on Delphi, mail FED2 or use the option on the main Fed page on Cris, mail FEDERATION2 **>> BULLETIN ENDS